The truth
by bubbly123
Summary: William Fox Read was a thirteen year old boy with an abusive father, a sick mother, and a young sister that needed his help.But when someone tips him off that his parents aren't his biological parents, he's on the hunt for the truth.
1. Chapter 1

_**So, this is just something that came to me one day when I was watching Sci-fi, a really boring show on Sci-fi, but anywayz, I thought I would make my idea become a reality, or as much of a reality as it's going to get. So, here goes. . .**_

William Read stood glaring at the women in front of him, there was absoloutly no way he was moving, no matter how hard his parents tried to convince him of it, he loved this town and if there was anything in the world that William Fox Read was afraid of, that would be moving.

But of course, he would never admit to it. He wasn't really one to admit to fears, elevan years of being beaten and abused by his father had toughened him up enough to learn that letting people know your fears wasn't always the smartest idea.

He sighed heavily as his mother tried to further convince him to move, she was a short women, small in stature, she had big gray eyes the once held a twinkle, but that twinkle had slowly died over the years. Her light Carmel hair was straight and streaked with gray, it stayed piled on her head in a tight bun most of the time, in fact William couldn't really remember when he'd last seen her with it down.

Her name was Lucy Read and she had always been kind to him, even when his father wasn't. William turned to his mother and placed a hand on her shoulder, it wasn't really that hard, seeing as even at twelve he passed her by at least half and inch.

"I'm really sorry, Mom. Ok? But I don't really know if I can bring myself to leave this place, it's the only home I've known, and not speaking of the house, but the town. I couldn't really care less if we moved from this house, honestly I think that would be a good idea. There are far to many memories I would just as soon forget from leaving this house, but not from this town."

Lucy laid a hand gently on her son's face and smiled a small sad smile. "Willy, this is what's best for us. . .I'm doing this-as your mother-to protect you, to keep you safe."

Her eyes glossed over with unshaped tears, and she looked down sadly, rubbing a spot on her face that sported a large purplish bruise. "I don't want him to hurt you anymore, William. I don't think I can stand seeing him hit you or your sister anymore."

William looked down at his mother and closed his eyes, it was difficult to understand what his mother was going through sometimes. She kept so much hidden when it would probably be best for her to let it out, then maybe she wouldn't be as broken as she was.

"Look, I know that he's hurt me and Joy, but I also know that he's hurt you worse. You've raise us well enough on your own, we've coped for the last five years on our own, without him. Why do we have to run?"

Lucy looked back up at William and smiled, and this time, her eyes smiled with her mouth, and just for a moment William saw the women that used to be.

"I know that your not afraid of him, and I know that you don't want to leave, but it's best for us. Your sister doesn't deserve this kind of life, _you _don't deserve this kind of life, and I'm through with living like this, I want something better, and this is the only way we're going to get rid of our past. We have to move on, Will. You have to move on, it's for the best."

William sighed and slowly admitted defeat, they had been packing for months to get ready for this day, his little sister, Joy, was as excited as ever, but he still hadn't accepted the idea even as they piled the last few boxes into the large rental truck.

But maybe his mother was right, maybe this was better for the family and he was being selfish. Anyway, it didn't matter now, they were moving and there was nothing to stop this.

_**So, tell me what you think. I love reviews!**_


	2. Chapter 2

Susan and Ellanora Carson were sisters, they lived in an old and run-down brick house on the outskirts of North Dakota. Susan was the youngest and the loudest by far, you would rarely see her not talking, Ellanora on the other hand was happy just to sit and think, and on most days, that's exactly what she did.

On this particular day Ellanora had decided to climb her favorite tree and sit and think in it's branches, Susan had of course wanted to go and had followed her to the lot beside their house.

No one had lived in the house that occupied the lot in years and Susan and Ellanora had spent many hot summer days lounging in their favorite tree.

But on this particular day Susan was restless, unhappy and getting a little bit annoying, Ellanora had been angry with her and had left to go back inside where she could sit and think alone.

Susan hadn't made any notion to follow her sister into the house and had stayed in the tree, soaking in the sun. After a few minutes Ellanora had come out of the house to call her sister to dinner, but had witnessed Susan being pulled away in a red car, unable to do anything else she yelled for her mother and ran after the car.

No older than seven years old, it was the only thing she could think to do. Days went by, weeks, months, soon morphing into years. Ellanora couldn't help but feel guilty about her sister's disappearance, maybe if she hadn't of left, maybe just maybe if she had stayed outside with her sister and watched her more closely, Susan would still be there with them today.

The police were informed of Susan's dissapearance but the only thing that was left at the scene was Susan's locket, where she held a picture of her mother, father, sister, and dog.

The family slowly drifted into a state of depression, Ellanora hardly spoke to anyone anymore, Richard and Dolores,(Ellanora and Susan's parents), never forgave themselves and didn't leave Ellanora alone for less than two minutes by herself, and their dog-Archie-ran away on the eve of Susan's disappearance.

After a year in a state of morning the family learned to move on and did their best to search for their daughter and sister, but still no one could tell them what had happened to Susan.

The family had become happy again after two years, slowly learning to move on little by little, they knew that morning over Susan wouldn't help her at all and would only tear apart the rest of their family. There were, of course, still times when Ellanora would hear her parents cry themselves to sleep at night, and she herself had restless nights like that as well, but they all knew it was time to start living without her.

The Carsons took trips to the beach again, they played at the park again, they did all the things that they hadn't done together sense Susan's dissapearance, and they were happy.

But one year later on a cold and cloudy October night Richard was working late and stayed at his office until the earlier hours of the morning. Driving back home would prove to be difficult as tired as he was, but he knew he had a family to go home to.

But tragedy struck and Richard collided head long into a speeding car in the wrong lane, the teenagers that had been driving had just came back from a party and had been driving under the influence of alcohol, Richard and one of the teens died in the gruesome crash, and the Carsons were now a family of two.

Ellanora took to sleeping in her mother's room at night and Dolores took to staying out late at night. When Ellanora was ten years old, she lost her mother.

Dolores had left one night and hadn't come back. Why? Ellanora never knew, all she knew now was that she was alone and forgotten.

She couldn't get away with living on her own for long and had quickly been spotted by he neighbors across the street, they were none to kind to her and brought her to social services where she was put in the foster care system.

None of her family would come and get her out of the foster system and she slowly learned to cope with being a foster child.

She stayed in North Dakota for a year and didn't speak unless spoken to during the entire year.

When she turned twelve they moved her away from North Dakota, bringing her to a foster home in Washington DC. Where her life turned around for the better.


	3. Chapter 3

William sighed and set down his homework for the third time that night, sure he realized that his mother was sick and that she needed him, but couldn't she call for Joy once in a while?

Lucy had contracting ovarian cancer not long after they had moved to Washington DC and ever since then William and Joy were basically taking care of themselves.

William stood and made his way upstairs to Lucy's bedroom, he stood outside the door and breathed in deeply, taking control of his temper, it wouldn't do any good to explode in front of his sick mother's face.

When he entered the room she was sitting up in bed with the remote for the TV in her hand, but the TV wasn't on.

William felt a rush of guilt as soon as he entered her room, here he was complaining about having to take care of his mother when it was obvious she was loosing her strength more and more each day, and besides the least he could do for her was to take care of her when she needed it most especially seeing as she had taken care of him ever sense he was an infant.

He frowned worridly and made his way to her bed, sitting on the edge carefully. "Mom, are you ok?"

Lucy smiled and shook her head. "It's been a year, William. A year sense I've been diagnosed with this, I'm hanging on a thread here. I'm loosing it, Willy, sooner or later you and your sister are going to be on your own."

William shook his head hard, he hated it when she talked about dieing, there was no way he could sit there and let her die without doing anything about it.

"Don't talk like that, Mom. Your _not _going to die, we'll get through this."

Lucy placed a hand on his face gently. "Your such a sweat boy, such a hansom boy, a _smart _boy, but you can't stop death, William, no one can."

William held his mother's hand lightly and bit his tongue to prevent from breaking down and crying, he didn't know how he would cope if his mother died.

Lucy coughed slightly and squeezed her son's hand tightly. "William, I need to tell you something, something important that I should have told you years ago, and I'm sorry I _haven't _told you sooner, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Oh, William! I'm. . .I'm. . .I'm not your _real _mother. . .I mean. . .I'm not your _biological _mother."

William inhaled sharply and shook his head no, he was silent for a while until the meaning of his mother's words hit him like a ton of bricks. " I'm. . .I'm adopted? Why didn't you tell me? This isn't true, no. . .no. . .You _are _my real mother, maybe not the women who gave birth to me, but _you're _the one who took care of me, _you're _the one who clothed me and fed me, _you're _the one who loved me, not my biological mother, _you!_"

Lucy was crying hard and gripped her son's hand tightly. "You don't know that your mother didn't love you! She might have given you up for your own good, you never really know. But. . .I thought. . ._maybe_ you would have guessed and I wouldn't have to tell you, it was. . .just. . .silly of me, I suppose."

William stopped short, why had he been so stupid? He had always looked different from the rest of his family, he was now way past his mother in heigth and as far as he knew heigth wasn't a Read quality, no one else in his family had his auburn brown hair or his blue-green eyes, and his nose was definitely his own no one in his family that he had ever met had his long slender nose.

William had, of course, asociated these unique qualities to skipped genes, he had never paid attention to how much Joy looked like his mother and father and how he didn't resemble them at all. But these things had never really mattered to him, he was never really much of a popular person in school, and still wasn't, being different was nothing new to him.

He couldn' really pretend he wasn't hurt by his mother not telling him all of these years, had she thought he wouldn't love her if he knew he'd been adopted, or had she thought he would want to find his biological parents as soon as he found out? whatever the reason, he decided, he'd have to respect it. There was no way he was going to fight with his mother over this when she was as sick as she was, but he couldn't help but ask a few questions.

"Did you ever meet them? My biological parents, I mean."

Lucy shook her head, she looked like she had calmed down as soon as she heard that William wasn't angry with her.

"I read their file though, you know, so I could know your history, you were a little over one at the time. Apparently your mother had kept you until then, then decided she couldn't keep you for some reason."

William nodded and settled down on the bed beside his mother. "What were their names? Where did they work? Did you see a picture of them? Do I look like them?"

Lucy smiled softly at her son and began to answer his questions one by one.

"From what I know, their names were Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, I don't remember their middle names though. They weren't married at the time, and I don't know if they ever _did _get married. I did see a picture of them, you have your father's nose, and your mother's hair."

She stopped here and sighed, looking down at the bed. After a short pause she answered his last question."They worked for the FBI, she was a doctor, and he was an Oxford trained psychologist, you've definitely got their brains."

She said this with a smile, but William could easily see the pain in her eyes. "I'm not going to try and find them, Mom. You're enough for me, I don't need to find my biological parents to fufill my life or anything like that."

"But, William that's why I wanted you to know. So if I die you'll have your biological parents to fall back on, you and Joy will be needing someone to take care of you, and maybe your father. . .I mean _Joy's _father, will take her in, but I don't know how he'll treat her. But even if Joy's father doesn't take her in she has my sister to fall back on or maybe her father's sister. I know for certain though, Joy's father isn't going to take you in, his sister won't either, and my sister wouldn't take on another boy if her life depended on it after her five boys."

William scowled slightly, she sure did know how to make him feel wanted. Lucy patted her son's hand again and continued on with her speech.

"I want you to have a place that's your own, somewhere you won't be treated like scum or be dismissed like just another kid, I want you to be loved, William."

William was silent, there was really nothing he could say to that, he appreciated his mother's concern for him to have a family that would love him, but his sister was enough, and if they had to go to into the foster care system if their mother died, then he'd just as soon have his sister over a "loving family".

Just as soon as this thought ran through his mind Joy barged into the room looking ecstatic.

"Wer're going to go to the J. Edgar Hoover building, Mom! It's a school trip, I've just gone and gotten the mail and my teacher sent the permission slip!"

Lucy smiled at her daughter and William smiled half hearted at his adopted sister. Joy flopped down at the foot of the bed and began to talk excitedly about the trip.

"Mrs.Courts already told us last week that we were going on a trip this year, but I didn't know where. All the other kids are kind of bored about this field trip though, you know, seeing as we already live in DC and most of them have been to the FBI building with their parents, but William and I haven't. Mrs.Courts says that out elementary school is going and so are some of the kids from William's school and maybe even some from the high school! Your teacher already sent your permission slip to you, William, and I already opened it, Mom as to sign both of ours so we can go next week, so I brought yours up with me, and I brought a pen for you, Mom!"

Lucy took the papers that Joy had taken from her pocket and scanned over them, she took the pen that Joy offered her into her shaking hands and sighned a wobbaly signiature down at the bottom of both pages.

She handed Joy back her slip and handed William his, who tucked it into his pocket for further investigation later. He wasn't un-excited about going to the Hoover building, but he had a lot more on his mind at the moment that a school field trip.

William stood and ushered his sister out of the room. "Let's give Mom some rest now ok, Joy?"

Joy sighed and nodded, she kissed her mother on the cheek and left out of the room to go call her best friend Hannah and talk to her about the trip.

William hugged his mother and Lucy placed a light kiss to his hair line. "Know that I love you, Will. No matter what happens to me or to you, I'll always love you."

William nodded and left for his room, his head swarming with thoughts.


	4. Chapter 4

Ellanora stood outside of the J Edgar Hoover building watching as people made their way in and out, she wasn't really interested in the FBI building but was forced to come by her foster parent who thought that it would be a wonderful way for her to get to know DC better.

Ellanora had been in DC for a little under a year now and knew as much about DC as she wanted to know, this trip wasn't going to make her be any happier about living there.

She sighed as her teacher finished rambling on about safety precautions and proceeded to lead her class into the building. Ellanora walked throughout the metal detectors and rolled her eyes as one of her class mates behind her got caught for bringing a metal pocket knife in the building.

A women with bright red hair and blue eyes stood at the back of the large mob of students, she tapped her foot impatiently as the guard that stood at the medal detectors confiscated the one boy's pocket knife, and proceeded to run him through with the wand.

When the rest of Ellanora's class was through the medal detectors and had visitor's badges pinned to their chests, the red headed women went through.

She smiled to the students as she went by and made her way hurriedly past them to the elevator. Her eyes lingered for a moment on a boy in her class, but she quickly shook her head and kept going, this boy didn't seem to notice as he was involved in a heated discussion with another boy in her class.

Ellanora followed the rest of her class through out the building as their guide rambled on about the history of the place, she had turned to tell off a small boy from the elementary school for stepping on her heels for the tenth time when she saw the same boy from her class that the women had stared at slowly edging away from the group.

Ellanora was curious as to why he was trying to sneak off, she knew the boy's name was William Read and knew the he had a tendency to be a goody too shoo in school, so why was he being the rebel all of a sudden and sneaking off from the group?

This she decided, as she made her way over to William, was something that would hold her attention far more that the history of the J Edgar Hoover building's history.

--

William watched as the guide talked about the FBI building, he was still slightly shaken from his argument with Thomas Hall, who he had told off for picking on his little sister.

There was no way some stupid boy was going to ruin possibly the best day of his sister's life by annoying her about the FBI's tendency to arrest nine year old girls.

William rolled his eyes at the back of Thomas' head as he started to pick on and innocent third grader. There were people in the world that the world could definitely do without, and Thomas Hall was one of those people.

William turned around to try and find a sharp implament to stick up Hall's nose, when he saw a tall man with brown hair and dark green eyes going through the medal detector as he talked on his cell phone.

That's when it hit him like a ton of bricks, if he really wanted to know who his parents were all he had to do was look here, The FBI was sure to have a file on them somewhere seeing as they were once, (or still were), FBI agents.

William edged his way to the edge of the group of students, maybe if he could get away from the crowd he could go ask someone about Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

But he stopped short when he saw Ellanora Carson coming at him, William knew her vaguely, she was one of those people who always sat in the back of the class room and never spoke unless spoken to or made angry.

William had the extreme displeasure of seeing her angry on a memorable occasion earlier in the year when Thomas Hall, (surprise surprise), had picked a fight with her, which had turned into a fist fight, which Ellanora had won and gotten detention for.

William tried to look casual, and failed miserably.

"What are you doing, Read.? Don't you think you'll get in trouble for sneaking off?" Ellanora smirked at him as he crossed his arms in defense.

"Who said I was sneaking off, Carson? I might of just been moving to get a better view of the guide."

Ellanora raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, that guide is really something to look at isn't she? Come off it Read, you suck at lying. You were trying to sneak off, tell the truth."

William glared at her and pursed his lips. "Why is it so important to you? And for your information I do not suck at lying, it's just your to good at seeing through lies, that's all."

"Right, I'm sure that's what it is. Anyway, it's not so important to me that I'm going to stand here and argue with you about it all day, but I was just curious as to what you had in mind, I wanted to go with you, that is, if your doing something interesting. But then again, compared to that old hag's voice. . ." she pointed to the guide. ". . .watching grass grow would be more interesting."

William surpressed a chuckle and nodded his head, he would need somone to make sure they didn't get caught and to keep an eye on the guide and their teacher, she would come in handy.

"All right, Carson, you can come. But you can't. . ."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know all the basic don't tell the teacher crap. Now are you gonna explain to me what we're doing or not?" Ellanora interrupted him.

"Fine."William replyed. "I was adopted, and my biological parents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, were or still are FBI agents, and I was thinking that maybe I could find something on them here, seeing as it is the FBI building."

Ellanora nodded. "Good, let's get started then, shall we?"

With that Ellanora pushed William to the ground and got down beside him, she crawled out of the large group of people over to medal detectors where they hid behind a particularly smelly trash can until their group moved on.

William stood and breathed the air that wasn't contaminated with the foul smell of garbage. "What had he gotten himself into?"


	5. Chapter 5

William poked his head around the corner he and Ellanora were hidden behind. They had made their way to the elevators and then to the corner they were hidden behind, but had no idea where to go from there.

"Read! If you don't stop lolly gagging we're not gonna find anything on your parents, all we're going to succeed in is getting caught and punished by the Federal Bureau of Investigation! Not to mention your mother, my foster parent, our teacher, _and _our principle."

"Wow, Carson! And I thought you didn't care about breaking rules." William retorted as he pulled her out into the hall.

Ellanora smirked at him as he pulled them down another hallway. William dodged an FBI agent who looked suspicious and hurried down the hallway as Ellanora trotted behind him, he was extremely surprised that no one had talked to them yet, and dodged anyone who looked like they were about to stop and talk.

"You know, it seems like you would have thought about this before you decided to run off and explore the Hoover building. _Hmm, I wonder what would happen if we get lost in the FBI building, maybe I should get a map, or follow the group until they went somewhere I would have information on my parents, on second thought. . .nahhhhh! That'd be to simple!"_

William stopped as he ducked behind a pillar and glared at Ellanora. "Your the one who pulled me behind the trash can! Who said I _wanted _to run off that minute?"

"Oh, come _on, _would you have seriously went anywhere any time soon if I hadn't have pulled you behind that trash can. You would probably still be standing there waiting for the right moment to run off!"

"Well, Carson if you so brilliant, what do we do now?" William replied as he crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows at her sceptically.

Ellanora grinned. "I thought you'd never ask! What I think we should do is ask somebody where we can find Special agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, we can pretend that we're related to them somehow, or something like that, and hopefully we'll ask somebody who actually knows them."

William nodded but didn't uncross his arms. "There's one problem with your plan there, Carson. What if they aren't FBI agents anymore? What if we ask someone who _does _know them, and they tell us off because they know that Fox Mulder and Dana Scully aren't agents anymore?"

"Ah, come on, Read! If that happens, then maybe they'll take us to the director of the FBI or something and we can ask him about them. I don't see you throughing out any brilliant ideas, so this is the only thing that either one of us can think of at the moment, so therefore the only thing we have to go on. You just tell me if you think of anything better between now and the time I go ask that bald agent our question."

Ellanora walked out from behind the pillar as William grabbed at her shirt and got dragged out from behind the pillar as well. Ellanora walked up to the bald agent and tapped him lightly on the shoulder, he turned and looked curiously at the two.

William sighed and shook his head but put on the most innocent face he could muster while disapproving whole heartidly of the situation. Ellanora did the same as she smiled lightly at the agent.

"I was just wondering. . ." she started as the bald man watched her half amused. "If you knew where to find. . ."

"You two shouldn't be up here, did you wonder away from a tour or something?" The bald man cut over her before she even got the question half way out of her mouth.

William smirked at Ellanora as she turned and glared at him.

"Pretty much, but, you know, we were wondering if you knew anything about. . ." Ellanora tried again.

But the man cut across her again. "You two can come to my office while I try and go find your teacher."

Ellanora sighed as the man pulled she and William along behind him. He turned into an office that had a receptionist at the front and pointed at the waiting couch for them to sit in. William grimaced as he read the sign on the office door, this man was the assistant director, they had definitely gotten in trouble big time.

The assistant director left after leaving strict instructions with his receptionist not to let them out of her sight. William watched him go and pulled out a bag of crushed David's sunflower seeds when he was out of the man's sight.

He pulled some out and put them in his mouth biting down and making a loud cracking noise, he really didn't know why he like the seeds so much, but he did know that they were definitely his comfort food, seeing as every time he got scared, bored, sick, nervous, or in trouble, he would turn to sunflower seeds.

The receptionist winced evertime William bit down and eventually turned from her work and to the two sitting on the couch.

"Little boy, could you please stop crunching those seeds? They're distracting me from my work."

William spit a few shells from his mouth and into his hand and looked over at the receptionist who was pursing her lips so hard it looked like she'd never be able to move them again.

"I'm not a little boy, and I really don't appreciate being called one. But then again, adults don't understand the fine line between adolescent, or teen, boy and "little boy". To you I'm just another one of those mangy kids who never listens to the constant plea of obedience from those I like to call, adults."

William said as he cracked another sunflower seed, ignoring the receptionist's request completely.

The receptionist looked startled that he would talk to her at all, let alone make assumptions as to what she thought. Ellanora looked surprised and a little amused at Williams mumbled speech, he hadn't changed tone once which made it sound like he knew _exactly _what he was talking about.

Ellanora gave a muffled laugh as William spit out more shells and gave a lopsided grin to the fuming receptionist.

"I'll have you know. . ." the receptionist started, but was cut short when a lanky brown headed man entered the office.

"Is Skinner in his office?" The man inquired as the receptionist composed herself.

"I'm sorry, Mr.Mulder he just left to find those _kid's _teacher. They seemed to have wandered away from their tour."

Ellanora glared at her enfaces on the word _kid's_, but William was ignoring the receptionist and Ellanora completely, his attention was more on the man that the receptionist had called Mr.Mulder.

Mulder shrugged and sat down. "I'll just wait here until he gets back then." William bit down on the sunflower seed that was in his mouth, almost forgetting he had one there and nudged Ellanora in the ribs.

"The receptionist called him Mulder, do you think he could be my dad?"

Ellanora shrugged in response and mouthed, _ask him._ William spit the shell to the seed out of his mouth and into his already full hand and stood to try and find a trash can.

Being in the same room with someone who could possibly be his father was making him nervous and he could guarantee that he would need more seeds to keep him from blowing up with excitement.

He dropped the shells into a trash can by the receptionist's desk and sat down on the couch again, Mulder was across from him and it was all William could do to keep from staring.

He put a hand full of seed in his mouth and bit down, Mulder looked over when he heard the noise and eyed William's bag of seeds curiously.

He smiled at William who grinned back best he could with a mouth full of sunflower seeds. William leaned over towards Mulder and spit out the shells to his seeds.

"Are you Fox Mulder?"

Mulder nodded and raised an eyebrow curiously. "Yeah, why?"

William's stomach did a flip, he had found his birth father! And his mother was right, he did have his nose.

"I'm William Read, and my mother said that. . .well I'm not entirely sure how to go about saying this, but my mother says that your my. . ."

William was cut short as Skinner walked in the door with his and Ellanora's teacher and glanced at Mulder who was eyeing William, if possible, even more curiously then he had been before.

"William Fox Read, Ellanora Bridget Carson! How dare you two wonder off! I can not believe that you would defy me like this! Especially you William, I thought you were more grounded than that!"

William sighed as his teacher talked, it looked as if he was going to be visiting the principle's office for the first time in his life, but this didn't concern him as much as the look on Mulder's face when his teacher had broad casted his middle name, (which he had no idea how she knew anyway).

Mulder stood and pointed at William and then back to the teacher who had stopped glaring at the two to look curiously at Mulder.

"His name is William Fox? Is. . .am. . .are. . .you. . .my son?" Mulder stuttered as the teacher looked at him strangely.

Skinner on the other hand was standing there eyes wide and mouth open. William looked at the two and grinned, maybe his father and mother hadn't just given him up for no reason, Fox Mulder obviously knew his name.

"I was about to explain, my mother says that my birth parents are Dana Scully, and Fox Mulder. And that's who you are, right?"

Mulder nodded as William addressed him, he still looked stunned.

The teacher huffed and pulled up Ellanora by the arm, who hadn't said a word since Mulder had walked in. She went to William who was staring at his father who had flopped back down on the couch, pulled out his cell phone, and was currently explaining the situation to what William believed to be his mother by the way he addressed her as Scully.

She pulled William up to and glared at Skinner, Mulder, and the receptionist,(who looked as if she's just been punched in the face).

"I really don't care who's son he is, he is in big trouble and is coming with me so I can report this to his mother and the principle! Thank you Mr.Skinner for informing me about my two escaped students. Good day to you all!"

With that their teacher pulled both of them roughly from the room, and William was surprised at how stout his teacher actually was, as he did put up quite a fight, but neither Skinner nor Mulder attempted to stop her from taking him from the room.

William sighed as he and Ellanora were dragged back to their group. That had definitely went better than he thought it would've, if only it had ended with him not getting caught by his teacher.


	6. Chapter 6

**_It has taken me forever to get inspiration for this chapter, (and I'm still not completely sure this is what I want to happen), but I thought I would give an explanation as to why I didn't post this chapter sooner. So, here's the next chapter, please review! And I mean please as in, pretty please with sugar, icing, peanuts, cherries, pickles, tomatoes, chocolate, cookies, and apricots on top!_**

**_:)_**

William winced as he heard his sister slam the door shut, it had been a day sense his run in at the FBI and he had managed to keep these things from his mother for a surprisingly long time. But there was no way he could hide the fact that he'd gotten detention when Joy was there to blab it to his mother, and boy would his mother be angry with him.

His lovely sister hadn't gotten the opportunity to tell Lucy about their trip at all when they had gotten back from it, seeing as their mother was fast asleep and as that was a rare treat for her to sleep peacefully the two siblings had left her alone. The next morning there hadn't been much time to talk to Lucy for fear of missing the school bus, but now that the day was over and Lucy was definitely wide awake, Joy could finally tell her mother about her field trip.

Joy stomped up the stairs as William stood from his desk and peeked out into the upstairs hallway to see what she would do. Joy frowned at him as she passed his bedroom, and turned swiftly, her brown hair flying dramatically around. She made her way to their mother's room and opened the door angrily, but slammed the door much more quietly than she had the front door.

Joy was definantly angry with him, William had expected this after their field trip. She was most likely mad at him over the fact that he had left her with Thomas Hall, or that maybe he had ran off when she had wanted him to be with her for her first trip to the Hoover building, but he really couldn't tell with his sister, all he knew was she was mad, and the quicker he figured out why, the better.

William made his way down the hallway and stood in front of Lucy's bedroom door listening quietly to her and Joy's conversation. He let out an audible sigh when he realized Joy had spared him and instead blamed her obvious anger on Thomas Hall for picking on her.

Deciding it was safe to enter the room William carefully pushed open the door, he was hit again with the sudden guilt as soon as he saw his mother. Lucy's condition had worsened, and no matter how much hope the doctors tried to install into the three, they all new that Lucy's end was nearing faster and faster no matter what they did to try and stop it.

Why had he went and gotten himself in trouble when he knew that his mother was as sick as she was? Wouldn't that just make things worse for them, for her? It was when these thoughts ran through William's mind that he decided he wouldn't tell his mother about his detention or about his little adventure at the FBI, things would run a lot smoother if he kept this little piece of information to himself.

Lucy smiled as her son entered the room and patted a place on her bed for him to come and sit at, Joy purposefully ignored her brother and continued to look directly at her mother.

William noticed this and purposefully sat in her line of vision, getting a scowl in return.

"Did you have a good time at the J. Edgar Hoover building, William? Joy was just telling me about what a good time she had." Lucy said as she tried to sit up, but failed and decided to just stay in the position she was in.

"It was. . .enjoyable." William replied with a smile, Joy scowled once again in his direction.

"Enjoyable wouldn't really be the word I would use for your experience at the FBI building, William." Joy put in.

Lucy looked intrigued at this piece of information. "Oh! What happened?"

"William. . ." Joy stopped short as her brother sent her a glare that clearly said, tell her what happened and I'll kill you.

Taking the hint Joy glared at him but changed her choice of words. "William met a little lady friend!" She said in a sing song voice as she smirked at her brother.

Said brother glared at her and proceeded to deny the fact. Sure he'd met Ellanora Carson, but she was most definitely not a "lady friend".

"I talked to a girl in my class, who actually talked back to me. That doesn't mean I like her or that she likes me, Joy." William said definitely.

"Whatever you say, Will. Whatever you say." Joy said as she smirked,(yet again), and winked at her older brother, knowing she'd pay for it later.

Lucy smiled at William and exchanged a knowing look with her only daughter. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, dear. Your growing into a young man, and you'll be attracted to girls your age now. I think you should get yourself a girlfriend, then maybe you wouldn't be so caught up in taking care of your sister and I. Ask this girl of yours out on a date, show her a good time, and then you can be a like a normal boy who doesn't have the worry of his entire family on his shoulders."

William bit his tongue to prevent himself from laughing at the thought of Ellanora Carson in a dress at a fancy Italian restaurant leaning back in her chair as he sat across from her in a tux and tie, that was never going to happen as long as Ellanora Carson was still the Ellanora Carson he remembered, and as long as he had any since left.

"I am a normal boy, Mom. I don't have to have a girlfriend to be normal, there are plenty of boys my age that I know who have never even spoken to a girl, let alone dated one and they're still classified as normal. Besides, I don't mind taking care of you and Joy." Ok, so that was a lie, but he wasn't about to tell his mother that he was angry at the fact that he had to take care of his family because his mother was to proud to get help, that wouldn't go over to well.

Lucy smiled and nodded her head, only half convinced. Joy just sat there looking amused at the whole situation, knowing full well that Ellanora Carson was anything but her brother's type.

William was spared the embarrassment of a retort from his nosey sister, (who was about to mention that he and Ellanora had disappeared half of the trip), when the door bell rang loudly.

"I'll get it!" He said possibly a little to excited. Which gave his mother the impression that he was expecting his "lady friend".

William rolled his eyes as he heard his mother call out to him after he had let the room.

"If it's that girl of yours bring her up here so I can meet her, ok William?"

William skidded to a halt in front of the door and opened it to be greeted by the last person he would expect on his doorstep, Ellanora Carson herself.

"Hay, Read." She said as she went passed him and into the small living room. "Nice place."

"Thanks, why are you here?" William replied as his brain failed to come to a conclusion as to why Ellanora Carson was now standing in the middle of his living room.

"Wow, Read, thanks for the happy greeting. It's fantastic to see you to!" She said with a smirk in his direction.

"No, seriously." He said ignoring her smirk.

"Did you ignore Mr.Principal man completely? Because one of out punishments was to write an essay about how "inappropriate" it was to wonder away from our group on our field trip. He said it would make us work together to realize that rule breaking brings horrid punishments, honestly I don't see how this is going to be so horrible, it's just an essay. I suppose he thought that you hated me, though, with the way that you basically ignore everything I said and everything he said after that. Which, honestly, it wouldn't really surprise me if you did hate me, because your probably blaming this whole thing on me, but I'm here to tell you right now that I do not care what you think of me, I lived almost five years or more of my life friendless and pissed off at the world, and after you've been through that, nothing really fazes you anymore, really." Ellanora finished.

William raised an eyebrow at her rambling. "Are you alright upstairs there, Carson?"

Ellanora smirked at him and pulled a lap top from the bag she had brought with her. "I wanted to get this essay thing over with as soon as possible so I decided I would invade your peaceful home! Doesn't that make you happy?!" She said sarcastically.

William rolled his eyes and sat down on the floor beside her. "Whatever, let's get this thing over with then, shall we?"

--

An hour later they had finished half of their 1,000 word essay with few interruptions. Joy had come downstairs once but had quickly ran back up to go report to her mother that William was with his girlfriend none to quietly. This confused Ellanora greatly who made William explain exactly why his sister thought she was his girlfriend.

Ellanora undid the hair tie that was keeping her dark brown locks up and ruffled her hair, William looked at her appearance amused. She still had her reading glasses on, (when she had first taken these out and put them on she had had to threaten William's life to get him to stop laughing at her "school girl" appearance), her long hair was flying every which way and her dark blue eyes were blood shot from looking at a computer screen for to long.

"If I only had a camera, Carson. This is a perfect opportunity for black mail." William said, letting a small amused snort escape him.

"Oh! Do I really look that good?" Was her sarcastic reply.

William chuckled and shook his head. "Your really not that bad to be around, Ellanora, you know that?"

Ellanora scowled at him and wrinkled her nose. "I would say the same to you if you hadn't of used my first name. Honestly, I hate my first name, it was my mother's middle name, and I really don't want to be associated with her. Do me a favor and stick to either, Carson or Bridget."

William looked slightly taken back. "Ok."

Ellanora. . .Carson, frowned and then quickly turned her frown upside down, giving William a one sided smile. "Your not so bad yourself there, William. In fact, I'd even admit to being your friend in public."

"Ah, well, I _guess _we can be friends, but you know I don't let just _anyone _be my friend?" William said sarcastically in a girlish voice, Carson punched him playfully in the arm and smirked at him, he just gave a lop sided grin in return.

"So what do we do now?" Carson said after they had sat for a few minutes in silence eating the food that William had brought from his kitchen.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, about your parents, your dear dad didn't seem to care to much about the fact that Mrs.Cory was practically dragging you out of the assistant director's office, now did he? What are we going to do next, that is if you still want to find your parents and actually have a civilized conversation with them." Carson said as she through a peanut into the air and caught it in between her teeth.

William shrugged and took some chips from the bowl in between them, they had put every snack food that he could find in their small pantry into one bowl and were picking around the things they didn't like.

"I supppose we can. . .well maybe. . .I have absolutely no idea." William settled on as soon as he had finished off his mouth full of chips.

"I thought you'd say that, you're not really one to think up ideas very quickly, are you? Maybe we should go back to the FBI building? Then we can wait untill your parents or that assistant director guy comes out and you can confront one of them then. Sound ok?"

"I don't know, my mom is really sick and she's counting on me to make sure Joy is ok while she's down, I don't think I could get by with leaving the house for that long." William replied, only slightly crest fallen.

"Well. . .we'll think of something else." Carson said as she stared transfixed at her converses.

"WILLIAM, MOM WANTS TO MEET YOUR GIRLFRIEND! SHE SAYS YOU BETTER COME UP HERE NOW OR I HAVE TO DRAG YOU!"William jumped as he heard his sister yell from upstairs, no matter how long you lived with her she could always surprise you with her sudden-not to mention loud-screeches.

Carson raised an eyebrow at William who had rolled his eyes then squeezed them shut, biting his lip as he controlled his obvious frustration at his loud sister.

"Well, I suppose I better introduce you to my mother then, shant I?" William said as he stood from where the two sat leaning up against his couch.

"Ok. But this doesn't mean that you can start holding my hand and calling me snooky pie or anything like that." Carson replied with an amused grin.

"Don't make this worse than it already is, Carson. My mother won't believe you're not my girlfriend no matter what I tell her, she's obsessed with the idea I think."

Carson snorted and put her reading glasses on top of her hair as she followed William up the stairs and to Lucy's room. When the two entered Joy had managed to help Lucy sit up against her head board and was sitting with an amused expression on a chair beside her mother's bed.

Lucy stopped short as Carson entered the room, slightly taken back by her appearance. Carson wore a long light blue printed t that fell to right below the bottom of her hips, white jeans that were tucked into black knee high converses, a silver charm bracelet, a golden locket that hung around her neck, and,(of course), her black reading glasses which were poised carefully upon her messy brown hair.

"Carson, this is my mother, Lucy Read and my sister Joy Read. Mom, Joy, this is a good friend of mine, Ellanora Carson." William introduced the three as Lucy shook herself and smiled at Carson.

"It's nice to meet you, Joy, Mrs.Read." Carson said as she smiled back at Lucy and gave a small smile to Joy as well.

"Wonderful to meet you to, dear!" Lucy said. "Pull up another few chairs, Joy. We have to give the poor girl a place to sit."

Joy left the room, leaving the other three occupants in an uncomfortable silence, when she returned she carried with her two chairs. She set them down beside her chair and invited Carson to sit in the one closest to her mother's bed.

"I would have gotten just one, but the two wouldn't come un-stuck, so I had to bring them both." Joy addressed her brother, who just smirked and sat down.

"Well now, Ellanora, who are your parents?" Lucy said as everyone was seated.

Carson squirmed uncomfortably before answering. "My dad is dead, and my mother left when I was ten, I've been in the foster system ever sense then."

Lucy looked embarrassed that she had said anything and William looked surprised that these things had actually happened to her, now he knew why she didn't want to be associated with her mother at least.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to be rude." Lucy said giving Carson an apologetic smile.

"That's alright, would you like to see a picture of them?"

"Sure." Lucy smiled.

Carson pulled the locket around her neck and opened the clasp, she held out the locket for Lucy to see.

"That's my mother, Dolores, my father, Richard, my sister Susan, and my dog, Archie. Susan was. . .taken. . . from us when I was seven, this was her locket, the only thing they found after her disappearance. Archie-the dog-ran away not long after." Carson explained as she pointed to the pictures, this was obviously a sensitive subject but she didn't seem to mind talking about it to them.

William felt a small twinge of pitty towards her, here he was with a sister and mother when she had no one, and they were looking for _his _biological parents when it seemed that they should be looking for Carson's family, not his.

Lucy smiled as Carson showed her her family, she herself looked pitying at the girl in front of her. Carson finished showing Lucy the pictures and fastened the locket back putting the chain back around her neck and fingering the locket with a far away look in her eye, apparently the picture had brought back memories.

"So, what are you and William up to?" Lucy asked, trying to change the subject.

"We got d. . ." Carson stopped as William shook his head frantically.

"We were just working on a school project, you know, an essay." William replied before Carson could finish.

Joy glanced at the her brother but didn't say anything, Carson smiled at Lucy and nodded her head yes to confirm what William had said.

Lucy looked at her son suspiciously but nodded her head none the less. "Oh. Well, will you two be making any plans this weekend? Joy and I can handle it here for a while if you two want to go out or something? I was actually telling William before you came, Ellanora, that he should take you out and have a good time, with all that he's been doing around here, I think he deserves it."

Carson turned her head to hide her amused smirk and quickly turned her amused snort into an odd sounding cough.

But William was doing neither, he had just gotten an idea, and idea that could help him get to his parents.

"Yeah, Mom. I think we will go out this Saturday, maybe around five if that's ok with you, Carson?" William said as he winked in Carson's direction, hoping she'd catch on and not think that he was seriously asking her out.

Carson looked dumb founded at first and raised her eyebrow in confusion, but quickly caught on when she saw his discreet wink.

"Sure."


	7. Chapter 7

William tugged on his jacket and tried his hardest to ignore the taunting that his sister was throwing at him. She had had a fit when William had said that he and Carson were going out and had busted out laughing almost as soon as Carson had left.

But it was the only way he could think of to get him off that weekend and the only way he and Carson would be able to linger around the FBI building all day.

William ran a hand through his hair and rolled his eyes at his sister's voice, he wished with all his heart that she would shut up. He opened his bedroom door and ignored Joy all the way to his mother's room where he was submitted to his mother's comments.

"Oh, Willy!" She started, her eyes lighting up as soon as her son entered the room. "You look fantastic! I'm so glad you're going out tonight! It's about time you had some fun!"

William smiled a fake smile and turned as his mother swirled her finger, giving him the cue to show her all of what he was wearing. He had a plane pair of dark jeans on, a white collared button up shirt with a plane black jacket and a pair of boots that he wore all the time.

"I hope you and Ellanora have a good time, I bet she'll look lovely for your day out, you both will look just as pretty as a picture!" Lucy told her son, who had to turn his head to suppress a laugh.

"Yeah, well, I'm off so I'll see you when I get back, which should be around. . ." William stopped here and looked at his watch. ". . .around five or earlier, I can guarantee I'll be back before six!" He said as he turned to exit the room.

"Ok, Will, you have fun! Love you!"

"Love you too!" William replied in a sing song voice.

He ran down the stairs hoping that Joy wouldn't be waiting for him at the bottom, she was.

"William! I hope you and your _girlfriend _have a good time!" Joy said sing songy as she waved a small wave. William smirked at her and left out the door.

He sighed as he closed his front door behind him and rolled his eyes, he would have to commit suicide if Joy spread the fact that he was "going out" with Ellanora Carson. It wasn't that she was a nerd or anything, but he was sure that the boys at school would have field day with it.

William shook his head and began walking to Carson's house, where he had agreed to meet her. He didn't have far to go, she just lived a few blocks down, he turned the corner and came face to face with a large stone house with yellow shudders and a bright white door, this was Carson's house.

William ran up the stone steps to the entrance and knocked on the door, he stood back and waited with his hands in his pockets for someone to answer the door.

Carson answered and, seeing that it was William, slipped out the door and closed it lightly behind her. She pulled him down the steps and down her street a little ways before she said anything to him.

"Sorry about that, you know, the whole drag you half way down my block thing. A girl who I'm living with is obsessed over the idea of me having a "boyfriend", she's like a sister to me and all, but I'm not about to let her meet you. She already insisted on doing my hair an picking out my clothes, and that was bad enough, if she even _saw _that I'd left with you she'd freak out and probably stalk you or something weird like that." Carson said as she came to a halt in front of a light pole.

William nodded and looked down at what she was wearing, he wasn't surprised that she hadn't picked out her clothes, they looked way to fancy for her to be wearing when she knew that they weren't going on a real date.

She had a frilly black skirt that came to right below her knees, a white lace top, and a pair of shiny black ballet slippers. Her hair had been curled and pinned back with a pearl clip, and it looked like she's been dusted with sparkles.

"You do look. . .different." William said as Carson unclipped her hair and stuffed the pearl clip into William's jacket.

"Don't be smart with me, Read. I can't help that Alley has a thing with sparkles, you should have seen me before I wiped the majority of them off, I looked like a giant twinkly star. And anyway, if you want to start pointing out faults with each other's appearances, what's with the hair? You look like you just stuck your head into a vat of butter."

William unconsciously stuck a hand to his head, Joy had squirted hair gel on him that morning when he'd gotten out of the shower, he had came extremely close to strangling her. He thought he'd gotten most of it out, apparently not.

"You can blame my dear little sister, Joy, for that. She thought it'd be funny if she dumped an entire bottle of hair gel on me after I'd gotten out of the shower, I did all I could do, but it just kind of stuck to my head."

Carson rolled her eyes and smirked at William. "Bend down here."

William did so and Carson rubbed her hands through his hair, making it stand on end. When he stood back up, his hair, which came to a few inches below his ears, was sticking out at all angles. Carson flattened down the top a bit and flipped out the ends.

"There, better." She said as she wiped her hands on William's jacket to get the gel off her hands. "At least you don't look like a grease ball anymore."

William shook his head and continued walking down the road, Carson right beside him. She wasn't short, Carson, she probably came to about an inch above the tip of his ear, but seeing as she was wearing flats and he was wearing a pare of heavy boots, he felt a lot taller than he actually was.

The two took a bus to the Hoover building, where they decided to go inside and see if they could make their job a little easier by finding Fox Mulder and Dana Scully before the end of the day. The only thing they succeeded in doing was make a security guard angry with them and getting kicked out of the building because Carson refused to leave until she got to finish a sentence, which the guard seemed intent on not letting her do.

When they finally admitted defeat they decided to go eat lunch at the caffe across the streat, maybe William's parents would come there for lunch as well? When the two had sat down at their table they ordered quickly and began to discuss their next move.

"I think we should stay here until we see one of them come out, or maybe until we see that assistant director guy come out, I bet he knows where your parents are." Carson said as she sipped on her coke.

"Sounds good to me, but we can't sit here here, we can't even see the FBI building from here. We'll have to sit outside or something, you know, closer to the building. But what if they don't use that exit, what if they leave by another way?" William said as he scanned over his menu.

"Well, I guess we'll think of that when we get there." Carson said as the waitress came to take their order.

It took William an exceptionally long time to decide what he wanted, which frustrated Carson slightly. He had narrowed his choice down to two and Carson was finding it hard to believe that he was having this much difficulty in choosing between a chicken sandwich and a turkey sandwich.

She finally closed her eyes and pointed to the menu, she looked down and her choice was closest to the turkey sandwhich, that's what William got.

"What did you do that for? I was thinking more along the lines of the chicken, actually." William started.

"Oh, please, don't be so whiney, you're worse than a pmsing women!" Carson replied angrily.

William glared at her, completely ignoring the two women that sat at the table beside theirs.

"That's uncalled for!"

"You're being uncalled for! It was two sandwiches, William! They were both poultry even! It's not that hard!" Carson replied as the red headed women at the table beside theirs gave her a strange look.

"Excuse me." She said as William started to open his mouth and reply. "Are you William Read?"

"Yeah?" William said with a nod.

"I'm. . .I'm. . .Dana Scully. Um, Fox Mulder is the one that you met in the FBI building the other day, right?" The women said as the women she was with eyes widened.

"Y-yeah, he was. . .well, I mean. . .you're Dana Scully? You. . .You're. . .my. . .my mother?"

"Well, if you're William Fox and you met Fox William Mulder and he said he was your father, than, yeah, I'm-I'm your mother." Scully said as she teared up slightly, Carson opened her mouth and looked at William astounded. William grinned at her, their fight before forgotten. He had found his biological mother.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Ok, so I wasn't happy at all with the chapter eight I had before this one, so I decided to re-due it. This one will hopefully add on to the story a bit more instead of bringing it to an abrupt stop with no where else to turn. If you are still reading and haven't virtually killed me for not posting regularly, please review and tell me what you think.**_

Dana took in a sharp intake of breath than stood up quickly, she couldn't stay, she couldn't put him in danger again.

"I'm so, so sorry, William. It was wonderful to see you again, after all, I never thought I would. But, I-I've got to leave." With that Scully picked up her purse and quickly made her way out of the cafe, knowing that her son would follow her.

Monica followed behind her and they both practically ran down the street and to their car, Dana brushed a stray tear from her face as she saw her son come out of the restaurant with his friend and watch them pull away.

It was killing her to do this to him, and to herself, but she couldn't let them get him, she couldn't put his life at risk. Sure, they might not be looking for him anymore, but there was no guarantee that they had ever stopped.

"Dana? Are you alright?" Monica asked her curiously as Scully wiped at her face again. What was the truth? "No", was the truth, she was far from fine. She had just abandoned her son for the second time in his life and she felt horrible for it, but she didn't want him dead, and Monica Reyes, of all people, understood that.

"I'll be fine." Was her short replie as she stopped herself from looking back to watch her only son's retreating form.

Monica frowned, knowing her friend wasn't fine at all, and knowing that if it hurt her to leave William it was killing Scully. But what could she do? If Dana were to take William back, he could be killed, and Monica was sure that that was the last thing that William's parents wanted.

"Mulder won't believe this." Dana said sadly, more to herself than anyone. "We've abandoned our own son three times. I have twice."

Monica lay a hand on Scully's shoulder and shook her head. "There was nothing you could do, if William knew why you had to leave him I'm sure he'd understand. It's his life that's at risk, and you can't risk your son's life for your happiness, even if he doesn't know."

Dana smiled a small, watery smile at Monica and took a deep breath, she was right, there was nothing she could do. Seeing William again was more than she could ever explain, it was a dream come true to be honest. There hadn't been a day sense she'd given him up when she hadn't wanted to be with him, or wanted him to be back with her, seeing her son seemingly happy and healthy thirteen years after she'd had to give him up, was something she'd never expected to see and secretly hoped would see again.

Monica nodded and put both hands back on the wheel as they pulled out onto a dirt road, maybe, just maybe, Scully would get to see her child again, but for now, his life had to come first.

**_Don't worry, this won't be the last time you'll see Scully and Mulder, William isn't going to give up that easily. . .ok, he might. . .but only temporarily!_**


	9. Chapter 9

William watched his biological mother pull away in a dark black vehicle and sighed largely, Carson watched him carefully out of the corner of her eye and put a hand on his shoulder when she saw him hang his head and stare at his feet.

"I don't get it." William said simply. "Why did she leave?"

Carson could think of a few reasons that might be plausible, but none of them would make William feel anywhere near better about being abandoned by his flesh and blood. "Maybe she just had to. . .I don't know. . .meet someone, or, something like that."

William looked sadly at his friend and bit his lip, and shook his head. "I want to know the truth, I want to know why she left me in the first place and I want to know why both of my biological parents seem to be ignoring me completely whenever I have any contact with them!"

Carson frowned and put her hand back to her side. "William, not everyone has loving parents. Not everyone has a hidden, and sincere reason for abandoning their own children. My mother didn't. Why can't you be happy with the mother you have? She seems more than enough to me. I don't know why you want to find out "the truth" when all it's going to do is make you hurt worse."

William rubbed his face and sat down at a bench that was outside of the cafe they had just left. "I'm sorry, Carson, but I want to know. If they left be because they didn't want me, then I'll forget about it, but I just want to know if they had a reason. Would you pass up the opportunity to find out if your mother had a reason for abandoning you?"

Carson gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. "My mother left me because she didn't care anymore, that's obvious. I don't have a family, Reed! The only people I have that are even close to being family are social workers and fellow foster children! I don't _have _any information on my parents, other than their names and the fact that my father is dead! You have it way better than I did when I was left alone, and you want to leave that behind? To what? Find "the truth"? I would _pay _to have a mother like yours, I would give up e-everything I own and more to have little sister again!" Carson started crying slightly here and rubbed at her eyes furiously. "M-maybe you've forgotten? But my little sister is dead or. . .or somewhere in a dark, forsaken place, l-lost without any knowledge, or very little, of what happened to her! A-and you're telling me th-that your family, that they aren't good enough for you? I'd feel really guilty if I were you, Reed. I'd feel like _crap_!"

William stood and embraced Carson letting her cry on his shoulder, he frowned into his friend's hair and rubbed her back softly as she sobbed.

"I'm sorry." He started as he closed his eyes and hugged her tighter. "I'm so sorry, Ellanora Carson. You're so strong sometimes it's hard for people to see what you've really been through. I admire that in you, and I get your point. Before we do anything to try and find out anything more about my family, we'll find your mother and try and find out what happened to your sister."

Carson sniffled loudly and pulled back to look into William's face. He was looking at her worriedly and he really did look just as upset as she was. William brushed a stray strand of hair from Carson's face and frowned at her blotchy red face, it was horrible to see her cry, especially knowing that he'd started her tears in the first place. If it made her feel any better, he certainly felt like crap now.

"Thank you, William." Carson said as she hugged him once more.

William squeezed her briefly and they both let go, he felt slightly less warm when he departed from her grasp and was wishing that he'd hugged her for just a few seconds more.

"I'm sorry." Carson said with a small laugh as William handed her a tissue. "I got snot all over your jacket."

William shrugged and smiled at her, happy to see her laughing instead of crying. William felt all warm inside when she smiled her usual, glowing grin back and started to walk back up the street.

William watched her for a second then followed after her, she was important to him, probably more than he'd ever realized at first. But he knew that she needed some sort of idea of what had happened to her once whole and happy family, and he would do whatever he could to give her the answers she needed, even if it meant following her to the end of the earth and back.


	10. Chapter 10

William lay in his bed staring idly at his ceiling, he was upset, possibly more so than he'd ever been. Why did bad things always have to happen? First his biological parents had given him up, and his mother hadn't even hinted that he was adopted until he'd turned thirteen, his step father had beaten him, his mother, and his sister and left the small family before anything could be done to attempt to fix the problem, they had been left in a run down house with barely any hope, then had had to move to DC to get away from his abusive step father who had come back and was wanting to take revenge on the entire family for squealing to social services, his mother had gotten cancer, his biological parents had left out on him again, and now. . .now Lucy was getting worse and worse and had been given the minimum of three weeks to live.

William wiped at his eyes, and bit the inside of his mouth to keep from crying, he wouldn't cry, he had to be strong, he had to be strong for Joy and most definitely for his mother. Lucy, Joy, and William had went for a check up earlier that day and had been told that Lucy's chances of survival were extremely low, and that they were doing all they could, but she was going to die. Now all they could do was wait, and waiting for his mother to die was worse than anything he had ever had to do, and he was sure it was even harder on Joy, who had always been extremely close with their mother.

William tried to ignore the soft knock on his door as Joy came in his room looking pale and shaken, she hadn't cried when she'd heard the news, but had vomited all over the doctor and hugged her mother as tightly as she could manage. Joy sat at the end of her brother's bed and screwed up her eyes, trying not to cry herself. William sat up and watched his sister worriedly, he lay a hand on her shoulder as she opened her mouth to speak.

"This is real, isn't it? I'm not dreaming."

William shook his head and hugged her tightly as she broke down and started to sob uncontrollably.

"I-I th-th-thought I-If I j-just p-pretended like i-i-it w-was a dream th-then i-it w-would be! B-but she's dying! My mother is dying! William, I don't want her to leave me! I don't want her to go!" Joy sobbed into her brother's chest as William frowned and let a few tears slide himself.

Both sibling held each other and did their best to comfort the other, but nothing could hide the pain of knowing that your mother was as good as dead. After a while they both stood and made a silent agreement to go and see their mother.

When they entered the small bedroom that their mother occupied most all of the time, Joy ran to her mother and hugged her again, looking as if she thought if she held her tight enough she couldn't leave them. Lucy had been crying, it was obvious by her tear stained and blotchy red face, she smiled at her children and hugged Joy back. William walked over slowly to the bed and sat on the edge, Joy was right, this had to be a dream. Nothing like this could ever happen. Could it?

"Don't cry for me, Joy. I'm not dead yet." Lucy told her daughter as she kissed the top of her head and scooted to one side of her bed so Joy could lay beside of her. "I knew this would happen, I just didn't know when. I'm more worried about you two than I am of dying. I know where I'll be when I leave this earth, but I don't know where my children will go. I want to apologize for leaving you, I never wanted to, or intended to, it's just how God's will played out."

William looked at the ceiling again and bit his lip hard, tears were thretaning to poor down his face, and he would not cry. Lucy placed a frail hand on her son's shoulder, and William took in a sharp breath letting a few tears slide. He lay beside his mother and, just like Joy, hugged to her side like a baby chick to a mother hen.

Lucy kissed both of her children on the head and closed her eyes. "I want you both to know, that I love you with _all_ of my hear. Don't cry for me when I'm gone. . .don't forget to live your lives."

Joy sobbed into her mother's chest and listened to the soft thumping of her heart, and William closed his eyes tightly and prayed to God that he'd give them at least a little bit more time with their mother. A small tear streamed down Lucy's face and she smiled into her children's hair. "I love you." It was then, that Lucy Grace Ripley Reed died, with her children by her side. Her last words uttered softly to both of them. And hearing their reply in unison before her spirit left her body. "We love you to, Mom."

William looked up at the still face of his mother, she was gone.

"Joy, she's. . .she's gone now." William said, not caring about the tears that were pouring down his face now.

Joy nodded and didn't move her head from her mother's chest. "I know. . .h-her h-h-h-heart stopped beating. I. . .I h-heard it's last beat. . .before. . .before she. . .left. She's. . .gone."

William stood up and pulled Joy from their mother's body, Joy screamed and kicked at William. "I can't leave her! Not now! She isn't dead! She's still alive! She has to be! No! No, you're not dead!" Joy turned to her brother and hugged him tightly, crying once more into his chest.

William hugged his sister tightly, but let go quicker than he had before. He needed to do something, anything, the first thing that he could think to do was call nine one one and tell them that his mother had died, it was the only thing at all really that came to him. Lucy hadn't told him what to do when she died, who to call, or what to do with her body, he wasn't even sure she had a will.

William reached for the phone on the bedside table and dialed nine one one, and waited for the operator to answer the line. She did almost as soon as William had pressed the call button.

"Nine one one, state you emergancy."

William looked at his mother's body and tried to calm himself down before he answered. "M-my mother has just died. . .I-I don't know what to do."

Somehow the fact that his mother was dead seemed to sink in a lot farther when he actually stated the words, and he had to restrain himself from crying to the operator.

"Where are you?" The opperator asked and William told her his address.

"I'm sending an ambulance out to you now, sit tight and wait, you're probably undergoing shock at the moment and they'll need to check you out as well."

William nodded, forgetting that the operator couldn't see him for a second, and ended the call.

He and Joy went downstairs and outside to wait for the ambulance so they could show them where to go. It wasn't long before they heard the sirens coming down the street and saw the flashing lights.

William stood up from where they had been sitting on the brick steps that lead to the front of their house.

Joy was the only family he had now, and he was the only family she had. They would make this work, they had to, or they would die trying.


	11. Chapter 11

**_Sorry I haven't updated in a while! Things are crazy! But I do hope people are still reading! _**

William stood frozen as he watched the EMTs bag his mother's body and load her into the back of the ambulance. Joy was shaking so badly she could barely hold the cup of water in her hand still enough to drink, and the EMTs that were exmining her had to hold her arms still forcefylly until she could even take sip.

William scrunched up his nose as the back of his eyes burned, watching somene he loved being put in what looked like an over sized trash bag and carried off to some cold morgue bothered him greatly, especially seeing as it was his mother. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, frowning.

He tried to clear his mind, he tried to think about what they were going to do, he tried to think about what the future would hold, what it couldn't hold, but his mind wouldn't work. His thoughts were fuzzy and blurred, like a jumbled radio signle, he couldn't think, and if he opened his mouth at tried, he was sure he wouldn't be able to speak either.

William shook his head roughly and put his face in his hands, he sat on the couch and put his elbows on his knees and stayed there, trying to make sense of everything going on around him, of everything that was happening. But things wouldn't slow down, and they were already going to fast for him to comprehend, one minute he was talking with his sister about their infanent fear of their mother's death, the next, Lucy was taken from them, pulled roughly from their grasp as the cycle of Lucy's life was completed and she was taken from the world.

William looked up as someone ran into the room and grabbed him forcefully by the shoulders, he stared for a while then comprehension dawned on him as Carson's face came into view. He stared at her sadly, and she frowned at him worridly.

"She's gone." William said as Carson's eyes widened and she pulled him into a tight embrace.

William welcomed her affection and hugged her back, burying his face into her shoulder. He took a sharp intake of breath and squeezed his eyes shut tightly, trying not to cry, but before he could help it his tears started flowing freely and he couldn't control the sobs coming from him.

Carson hugged him, if possable, even tighter and rubbed the back of his head gently while he cried on her shoulder. She shooshed him quitly and rocked him softly, trying her hardest to portray to him that she was really and truely sorry for his loss. Becaus after all, who new better than her what it was like to loose a parent? She'd lost both of her parents, by death and. . .well, just plane misfortune on her part.

It hurt her to see him like this, him and his sister, she knew what they felt like, the hoplessness that came with having somone you loved float into the next life, the horrible idea of having to fend for yourself when you were so used to having somone to lean on, and the out right horror of watching the person that had been with you through thick and thin, through all of your life, being put into a dark hole in the ground. Yes. . .she knew what it felt like.

Carson sighed and kissed the top of William's head. "I'm so sorry, I wish there was something I could do."

William brought his head up to look her in the eye and shook his head. "You've already done something."

Carson brushed a stray tear from his face and smiled a small, sad smile which quickly turned into a frown. "What are you gonna do?"

William shrugged and sighed heavily. "I-I dunno. . .I don't know. It's g-gonna take a l-long time to get th-through this, and I don't know what we're gonna do. Sh-she was the only decant family we had and I don't what we're going to do without her."

Carson nodded and whiped at her own eyes, which had started producing tears as well. "Well, I'll be there for you, ok? You can count on me, if you need anything, anything at all, you know where to find me, and you know you can ask me."

"Thank-you. You r-really don't know what that means to me."

Carson nodded and again and glanced over at Joy, who was staring, transfixed at the floor. "You two will get through this, pain eases over time."

"Yeah," William agreed as he to looked at his sister. "But it never _really _goes away, does it?"

**_AAAAAAAAA! I forgot the second half of the chapter the first time I posted this! Grrr! So sorry for the mistake, I hope it makes more sense now! And thanks to _**LittleOneS2S_**for pointing it out, I really didn't notice that most of the chapter was missing!:)**_


	12. Chapter 12

William woke suddenly from a disturbing night mare, and looked around him at the dark room. Where was he? He sat up and stared into the darkness as his eyes adjusted to the lighting. Joy shifted slightly in the bed beside his and he remembered with an unpleasant jolt that his night mare was a sickening reality.

William bit back the tears that threatened to form and stood from the uncomfortable bed, wide awake. He made his way out of the small room and navigated the unfamiliar house until he reached the cold, country style kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and glanced at the digital clock on the microwave, the bright green lights formed the time 3:30, and he sighed deeply as he realized that he'd not slept but two hours.

William sat at his aunt's kitchen table and traced that scratches that were cut deep into the wood, he'd remembered when his cousin Ben had made those, right before he'd left his non to quiet home for God knows what. William sipped on the water as the kitchen light turned on, and he found himself blinking up at the form of his mother's sister.

"William? Hon, what are you doing up?" Carla asked as she went to get herself a glass of milk.

William shrugged and eyed his own beverage. "Couldn't sleep."

Carla nodded understanding and rubbed at her own blood shot eyes. "Yeah, me neither."

William breathed deeply and hugged his arms close as a cold chill ran up his spine, it was unnaturally cold in his Aunt Carla's house. Carla eyed his movement and sat herself across from him at the kitchen table. "You OK, William?"

William shrugged again for the second time and kept his eyes from his aunt's face. "No, not really. But I guess that it's normal to not be ok after all that's happened today."

Carla nodded in agreement and tucked a strand of her graying black hair behind her ear. "You and Joy have been through a lot in the past year or so, I wouldn't expect anything less that you "not" being OK." She said, smiling a smile that didn't reach her gray eyes. The same eyes, William realized with a jolt, that his mother had had.

"Are you going to let us stay here, Aunt Carla? Joy and I." He asked, not really caring if his question sounded slighty rude.

"You're here aren't' you?" Carla replied, confused.

"No, I mean, for good. Now that mom's. . .gone, will we stay with you? Or are we going into the system?"

Carla sighed and put one chubby hand over her nephew's. "I don't know, William. Nothings set in stone yet, but I suppose you'll be with me at least until your father can take you two. I don't know if I can afford to keep up to more kids, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. I've got five boys, and between you and me, the mailman's kid is on the way. I don't know if I can take on both of you with another child getting ready to enter the brood. I'm sorry."

William nodded, he hadn't expected much anything else. Hadn't Lucy told him that Carla would be apprehensive about taking on another child? "I just. . was wondering."

Carla patted his hand and smiled at him, this smile even less meaningful than the first. "It's perfectly natural to be concerned about your and your sister's future, in fact I'd be worried if you weren't."

William tried and failed to give his aunt a smile, and Carla, seeing William had said all he needed, wanted, and could, stood up from the table. "You need to try and get some sleep, Will. You've got a day and a half tomorrow, we'll need to go through some things, see if we can find your mother's will. Then we'll have to make funeral preparations. . .and you're going to need to be rested."

William nodded and stood from the table as well, put his glass in the sink and followed his aunt from the kitchen, she was being strong for him, and he appreciate it.

The two made their way upstairs together and Carla kissed her nephew on the head and patted his shoulder tenderly as she went back to her room, uttering a quiet "good night" as she went.

William stood, transfixed in the hall way, staring at his feet sadly, he was tired, beat, exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to sleep off everything bad that had happened to he and his sister, if only sleep would come.

He made his way back into the room he and Joy shared, and lay back down on his bed staring at the ceiling, willing sleep to come. And when it did, he welcomed it as happily as he'd ever welcomed anything in his life.

For now, sleep was his only relief, his only escape from the plagues that would torment him in his waking state, and for now, that was all he could as for.


End file.
